Constantine Is Faithful To The Comics, But To A Fault

[K9]

I thought the pilot had its positives and negatives. A big negative to me was the sanitized version of Constantine himself; this may prove to be a fatal flaw right from the start. I did watch the Flash pilot around the same time when it leaked online over the summer and found this one to be more compelling. That may speak more to the strength of that Flash pilot than to the Constantine one. I'm someone who liked the Constantine movie well enough and will give this show its fair shot.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Bah this was DOA the minute NBC put it in a Friday night death slot.

 

[Albino Boo]

Woah that accent is bad, Constantine is supposed to be a Scouser not from Lancashire and to be frank its more generic Northen then even that.

 

[Fanghawk]

Constantine Is Faithful To The Comics, But To A Fault

The premiere of Constantine has all the trappings of a faithful adaptation... but it still doesn't impress.

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[Jandau]

Ummm... while I will admit that the pilot didn't blow my mind, I did find it a decent start. But 2 stars? That's harsh! It's 3-3.5 material, with room for growth. And my only contact with the franchise was the Keanu Reeves film, so I'm hardly a fanboy. It's decent, solid urban fantasy. A more serious Supernatural. Kinda like Dresden Files, if Harry Dresden was a prick. I'll be watching this one and I encourage people to give it a chance, fans or not.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Ummm... while I will admit that the pilot didn't blow my mind, I did find it a decent start. But 2 stars? That's harsh! It's 3-3.5 material, with room for growth. And my only contact with the franchise was the Keanu Reeves film, so I'm hardly a fanboy. It's decent, solid urban fantasy. A more serious Supernatural. Kinda like Dresden Files, if Harry Dresden was a prick. I'll be watching this one and I encourage people to give it a chance, fans or not.

I am with you I think that it has the potential to be something good. My biggest problem with it was the woman with the bad American acccent and she is getting the boot so i have high hopes.

Still my expectations were low. I am a big Dresden Files fan and considering how bad the Dresden TV show was I was prepared for the worst.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Bah this was DOA the minute NBC put it in a Friday night death slot.

Honestly, Friday night is probably the best place for this show to thrive. Friday night isn't the "death slot" it used to be. You have shows like Grimm, also on NBC and a great lead in for Constantine, currently in it's third (or fourth, maybe?) season and it debuted on Fridays and shy of a very brief run on Monday (I think) it has never been in any danger of cancellation. In fact, it has been one of NBC's stronger performing shows. If NBC's treatment of Grimm is any indication of what we can expect from Constantine I would say that Constantine is anything but DOA.

Over on other Networks you had Smallville in it's last three or four seasons, along with Supernatural, finding decent numbers on Friday nights on The CW. Then on CBS you have Bluebloods and Hawaii 5-0 both shows that are currently airing that have survived multiple seasons on Friday nights. If anything, the trend seems to be that networks are actually looking for quality programming to attract viewers for Friday night television.

Now, to be fair, you aren't going to get the same type of volume of viewers on Fridays, either in core 18-49 nor in totals but networks realize this and adjust accordingly. Numbers that would mean cancellation on other nights are viewed as highly successful on Fridays. The bar is lowered in many ways to realistically account for the smaller audience overall and if shows are able to provide even modest numbers they have typically been supported and renewed

Friday 18-49 ratings are always low but shows can still get good view numbers I admit, I just don't believe a more obscure comic character like Constantine is going to get them.

There is also a lot of difference between an already successful show like Smallville moving to Friday's and bringing it's audience with it than there is with one premiering on a Friday.

 

[Jandau]

Ummm... while I will admit that the pilot didn't blow my mind, I did find it a decent start. But 2 stars? That's harsh! It's 3-3.5 material, with room for growth. And my only contact with the franchise was the Keanu Reeves film, so I'm hardly a fanboy. It's decent, solid urban fantasy. A more serious Supernatural. Kinda like Dresden Files, if Harry Dresden was a prick. I'll be watching this one and I encourage people to give it a chance, fans or not.

I am with you I think that it has the potential to be something good. My biggest problem with it was the woman with the bad American acccent and she is getting the boot so i have high hopes.

Still my expectations were low. I am a big Dresden Files fan and considering how bad the Dresden TV show was I was prepared for the worst.

Oh god, don't remind me of the Dresden Files show, that was a disgrace. Some decent actors in there, but the material they were given to work with was atrocious. It literally made me depressed to watch what they did with the source material.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Ratings for Constantine's premier are in 1.4/5 rating/share and 4.30 million viewers the lowest viewers apart from CW's.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/10/25/tv-ratings-friday-the-amazing-race-last-man-standing-slide-blue-bloods-rises-constantine-makes-ok-debut/318972/

Will update when final numbers come in.

 

[marscentral]

I liked it and thought it showed promise. I'm not a big Constantine fan and only really followed his exploits since his transition to the mainstream DCU, so I'm going to be a little easier to please. Pilots are always a bit of a mess as they establish themselves. I think you have to allow for that and really track a show over it's first two or three regular episodes to get a feel for where it's going.

 

[Smiley Face]

I rarely judge a show by a poor pilot, the pilot's made to show off what the show will be about, and then it's focus-tested to iron out the things that don't work. So it doesn't make too much sense to look at pilots for what they do wrong, since that will probably change, but more for what they do right, and in terms of the feel of it all, I'll keep watching it to see how things go.

 

[VoidWanderer]

You can almost imagine the writers digging through their reject pile of supernatural story ideas and frankensteining them together.

 

[sc1arr1]

Honestly I loved the pilot and I'm looking forward to what they do with the series.

 

[Veldel]

You can almost imagine the writers digging through their reject pile of supernatural story ideas and frankensteining them together.

I did I enjoyed it for what they did they took stuff from Hellblazer which came before supernatural.

Not best but far from worse I'm looking forward to the next ep.

I hope members of the JLD show up later on I'd love to see Deadman or Zatana

 

[Baresark]

I liked the pilot well enough. I watched the leaked one over the summer as well, and was a bit surprised they are getting rid of that character. Her story was interesting and she wasn't a bad actress. That said, the thing that I don't like about this show so far is Matt Ryan. I could not be any less convinced of the lines he delivers. He feels like he is reading from a prompter to me. He is always looking off in the distance whenever he talks, it's really annoying. And that whole trying to summon my mothers spirit thing... I don't think he gives a shit at all. I just feel like he has no weight what so ever when he talks. Also, I couldn't agree more with the article about Chas's character. Talk about a waste. He was interesting (seemingly not being able to die and all) but he feels underused. He had like 3 lines. Once again, when he spoke though, I felt very little weight behind it.

 

[ExtraDebit]

I must say, if the show is a faithful representation of the comic, wtf were people reading?

It was so boring I turn it off half way through. We already have shows like this that's much more interesting like supernatural, we don't need this shit.

 

[D3P1KT]

People always seem to think that by leading the audience by the hand through everything is an effective method of storytelling and that it seems to be creeping into every T.V series I've watched lately; This doesn't do that. No. It grabs you and throws you into a world where you choose to watch and listen or you don't. It was refreshing. It was enlightening. Not some archetypal development (flashbacks for days, small insignificant characters get arcs for no reason, long drawn out explanations, 'oh, twist', etc) that is plaguing shows these days.

It always fascinates me the kind of feedback that is garnered on these kind of things. I've not read any of the comics or is anything vaguely understanding of the universe. But, I think this show has potential. Admittedly, I have a feel of pain in my gut; The PG feeling is strong (Removing the fact that the occult is being mentioned [THIS SEEMS TO OFFEND CERTAIN GROUPS OF PEOPLE - Even though without their ideologies{None of it would exist}] - removing the fact that this seems to draw on ancient cultures etc). In an age where things like Game of Thrones exists why is it that they feel that characters can only be portrayed in a certain light?

I'll likely have more things to RAMBLE on about after Ep2. Or when I can be bothered looking into the comics to see how 'accurate' the adaptation is.

 

[RavingSturm]

I must say, if the show is a faithful representation of the comic, wtf were people reading?

It was so boring I turn it off half way through. We already have shows like this that's much more interesting like supernatural, we don't need this shit.

Well the show certainly isnt Hellblazer(yet). Its just too cleaned up as it is at the moment. People who have not read the comic probably wont stick around and Hellblazer fans will give up on it. He cant even smoke on TV. Faithful to the comic-the reviewer might be referencing the NEW 52 Constantine comic NOT Hellblazer. Hellblazer and New 52 Constantine are two different animals imho.